


Heaven's When You Looked At Me

by bigbidumbass



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: M/M, OW, brief mention of PTSD, dave and klaus being soft, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18365384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigbidumbass/pseuds/bigbidumbass
Summary: Dave is having nightmares. Klaus knows the way they hurt all too well.





	Heaven's When You Looked At Me

_“Stop!”_

The word was soft, barely coherent, but it was all it took to wake up Klaus. Half-asleep, he opened his eyes, wondering if he’d actually heard it. It was silent for a moment before he realized Dave was trembling. Not the light, hardly noticeable shaking that Klaus so often found himself subject to; No, _this_ was much worse- the word that came to mind was violent. He was shuddering, mumbling words under his breath, turning from side to side.

Klaus stared at him in shock for a second- Dave never had nightmares. Klaus had always been the one who found himself facing the torturous nights, the one who Dave had to shake awake and hold until he’d had stopped crying, the one who used to medicate to avoid going to sleep. But even so, Klaus recognized the signs, and he quickly sat up.

“Dave?” he whispered.

 _“No, she’s not,”_ Dave muttered, but didn’t wake.

Klaus gently grabbed his arm.

“Dave, it’s just a dream, wake up,” he said.

Dave still wouldn’t stir. Klaus, scared, shook him. Dave jolted awake, breathing heavily. He was still shaking. Klaus hardly knew what to say- he knew next to nothing of Dave’s past, and he had even less of an idea what he could be dreaming about.

“It was just a dream,” he told Dave hesitantly, taking his hand. Dave softly pulled out of his grip and walked to the bathroom wordlessly.

“Shit,” Klaus muttered under his breath, rubbing his forehead. He debated going after him, but when Klaus heard the shower start up, he decided to give Dave some space.

Laying back down, he tried to think over what he knew of Dave’s past, but his attempts were pointless. Dave’s parents weren’t in the picture, that’s all Klaus knew. He wasn’t even sure if Dave had siblings.

Sighing, he dug himself deeper under the covers. He didn’t mean for it to happen, but sleep took him again.

When Klaus woke up, Dave was gone. It was hard not to feel hurt over the silence. It was also hard to ignore the voice inside of him that reminded it was unfair to expect Dave to open up about these things.

Dave had left him a note, saying that he’d gone to the gym but would soon return and also that he was sorry.

It was time for breakfast.

Klaus didn’t bother getting dressed. He went to the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal. He hated silence. It filled the air around him, amplified his thoughts, suffocated him.

“No,” he muttered, clamping his hands over his ears. “No, no no!”

He couldn’t hear himself, couldn’t hear anything. Grabbing his spoon, he chucked it onto the ground, and the silence broke. He sat still for a moment, relishing the clatter it had made as it hit the floor.

He grabbed another spoon.

 

Dave walked in to find Klaus throwing spoons on the floor.

Granted, it wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d walked into while living with Klaus, but it still took him by surprise. Glancing from the multiple spoons on the floor to Klaus’s quickly fading expression of glee, he set down his bag.

“Uh… Klaus?” he started.

“There’s an explanation!” Klaus defended himself quickly. Dave raised his eyebrows, waiting for Klaus to go on.

Klaus sighed, his shoulders sinking. “It was too quiet,” he said softly. Dave didn’t question him further, just pulled him into a hug.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” he told Klaus.

Klaus shook his head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

Dave nodded, not knowing what to say.

There was tension between them. As much as Dave hated tension, as much as he didn’t want it there, it was so clearly etched into their relationship now, like pencil scrawls on a piece of paper.

He could read it in Klaus- his silence, his hunched shoulders, his fidgeting. But worst of all, Dave could read it in himself. His awkward responses, hesitant movements of affection, complete inability to know what to say- they were all clear signs.

And it scared Dave. Klaus had always, always been so easy to talk to. Well, about everything except his past. He didn’t tell anyone about his past. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, or that he didn’t trust Klaus; It was just that for whatever reason, whenever Dave had gotten to his past, it was like there was a giant block in his mind, forbidding him from talking about it. He could feel it there now.

Klaus stepped forward, trying to read the emotions that ran across Dave’s face.

“Hey, if you wanted,” he started, taking Dave’s hand, “We could talk about it? I’m a good listener.”

Dave so badly wanted to say yes, but instead, he shook his head. He couldn’t. Klaus gave a small nod and pressed his forehead against Dave’s, calmed by the sound of Dave’s even breaths.

Dave cupped his palm against Klaus’s face, staring into Klaus’s eyes. Klaus gave him a small smile, then tilted his head closer and pressed his lips to Dave’s.

Dave tried to relish the moment, the feeling of Klaus pressed against him, the way Klaus’s hands tangled in his hair, but it was hard to ignore his thoughts.

Before he knew it, the moment had ended. The tension was there again, and with it came the impulse to run, like he always had. But he would never run from Klaus. He took a deep breath and took Klaus’s hand.

“Maybe we _should_ talk,” he said, and instantly regret it. The box was there, firm as ever. But Klaus gently pulled Dave to the couch and waited patiently as Dave struggled to find the words, brushing his thumb over Dave’s knuckles. It was a small action, but it grounded Dave, reminded him that he was safe and home.

Dave ran through so many ways to phrase it in his mind. He’d never told anyone about it, anyone. The idea of talking about it seemed alien in his mind. With his free hand, he grabbed the necklace around his throat, playing with it. His hands were shaking.

“My dad used to hit my mom,” he finally blurted out. He looked at Klaus, searching for pity in his eyes, but to Dave’s relief, there was none. He hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out how to continue.

“He almost killed her once. I was there.”

Klaus’s grip had tightened on Dave’s hand, and he listened intently.

Once Dave had started talking, it was hard for him to stop. He told Klaus about the abuse starting when he’d been a kid, that he’d once tried to defend his mother and ended up with a concussion.

He told Klaus how his father had once hurt his mother so badly she’d ended up in a coma, but even after all of his dad’s abuse, even after how Dave had begged her, his mother wouldn’t leave. He told him how he’d run away after that, moved from job to job until a family had taken him in.

He told Klaus how he’d healed, in his own way, how he’d managed to move past it but that it still came back sometimes in nightmares.

When he was done, they sat in silence for a while, Dave laying in Klaus’s lap as Klaus played with his hair.

When his stomach growled, Klaus let out a small laugh.

“Lunch?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Dave replied.

And when they got up, hands tangled together, Klaus still in his pajamas, spoons littering the floor, Dave felt freer than he had in a long, long time.

**Author's Note:**

> chapter 2 is hopefully coming soon!


End file.
